Parallel Universes
by WhiteWolfe13
Summary: The end of the Western Civilization is arriving, and in a final attempt to ensure peace and serenity in the next era, a forgotten god gathers a select group of demigods, wizards, and witches, meant to have power in the new world. Post-HoO/DH. T for turtles.
1. The Center of the Sun

**Yo. This is my first story on FF. Completely original and wacko plot... it's been sitting as a draft on Microsoft Word for the past two and a half years...**

**And so here it is.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter (nor would I like to) or PJO (which I would prefer to).**

* * *

**Third**

When Harry woke up, he didn't expect to be in a strange house, wearing clean muggle clothes, lying in a bed with his unharmed friends lying the beds next to him.

Moments after he sat up, yawning and rubbing his eyes, Ron did the same in the bed next to his.

"Who're you?" a voice asked from the doorway. All of them sat up at that.

Harry raised his wand. "Who are you?" he demanded. "Where are we? What are we doing here?"

The girl - with choppy brown hair and kaleidoscope eyes - shrugged. "I'm Piper Mc-" she stopped. "Just Piper. I don't know where we are or what we're doing here. My friends and I woke up here, in a room. We don't know how we got here."

They glared, deciding wether or not 'Piper' was telling the truth - but they felt compelled to believe her.

"Okay," they agreed after a long silence (well, they had gotten fresh clothes and a nice sleep, and they were all safe).

"So who're you?"

"You don't know? I'm Harry Potter."

All they got was a confused look. "Got no recollection of any hairy potters."

Harry flushed red as Ginny, Hermione, and Ron stifled their laughs.

"He means Harry Potter, as in H-a-r-r-y P-o-t-t-e-r." Hermione corrected.

"Oh. If you're ready, Jason said that he found a kitchen."

"Jason?"

"That's my boyfriend."

Ron swung his legs over the bed, standing up and yawning. "Okay."

"BEAUTY QUEEN! BREAKFAST!" a male voice shouted from outside.

Piper turned around and stuck her head out of the door. "SHUT IT, REPAIR BOY! I'M GETTING OUR HOUSEMATES UP, SEEING AS WE'RE LOCKED IN!"

All of the jumped up at that. Hermione asked, "We're locked in?"

"Yep," Piper replied, popping the 'p'. "But c'mon, let's go," she urged them. "Leo says breakfast is ready. And I assure you, it isn't poisoned."

With that, she turned and walked down the stairs.

"We can just use _alohomora,_ can't we?" Harry asked, looking around at everyone: he saw Ron, Hermione, Ginny, George, Percy, Luna, and Neville.

"No," Luna's light voice floated through the air. All heads turned to her.

"Why not?" Hermione asked.

"Because the house is magical," the Ravenclaw responded. "Just not in the way you'd think."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Luna responded, heading towards the door. "and I do think that muggle clothing isn't that bad... do you agree?"

She shut the door behind her.

* * *

By the time the wizards and witches all got down the to the kitchen, they had gotten lost a total of eleven times. However, there seemed to be glowing arrows on the floor, pointing them in the direction of whatever room they needed to go to - this they had learned _after_ the eleventh time.

When they all arrived in the kitchen, they each had a hand on their wand, just in case there were and leftover Death Eaters or dementors.

Instead, there was a group of seven people sitting at one of two tables. The tables were the same, only the one occupied had a strange bronze flaming pit in the center. The wizards recognized one of the seven to be Piper.

Sitting next to her was a blond boy, with electric blue eyes and a small scar on his upper lip. He wore a clean yellow t-shirt as well as jeans. Next to him was a girl with spiky black hair, the same blue eyes, but with a Death to Barbie t-shirt, camo pants, and a silver circlet on her brow. A silver jacket hung off of her chair.

Across from her was a young boy, about thirteen or fourteen, dressed in black jeans, a black t-shirt with skulls on it, and an oversized aviator's jacket. On his left hand glittered a silver skull ring with ruby eyes. He sat next to a girl with dark skin and curly black hair, in a purple t-shirt and blue jeans. Next to her was a bulky boy dressed the same.

At the end of the table was another boy, who was skinny and had a mop of brown curls sitting atop his head. He was hunched down, in his clean-pressed white shirt and old suspenders. He was playing with something in his hands, and once, the magical people swore they saw a spark. At the other end of the table, there were two empty seats.

"Oh, hey," Piper said, standing up. "you're here. We were waiting for you."

"We should do introductions," Hermione suggested.

Piper looked at her friends, who all shrugged. "Well, you know me. I'm Piper."

The blond boy raised his hand. "Jason Grace, Piper's boyfriend."

Spiky-haired girl was next. "Thalia, Jason's sister."

"Are you twins?" George asked.

Thalia snorted. "Nope. I'm older. Looks can be deceiving."

The curly-haired guy lifted his head to reveal an elfish face. "Leo Valdez."

The two in purple tees were next. "I'm Hazel Levesque," the girl said. "and this is my boyfriend, Frank Zhang."

The boy in all black looked up from his eggs. "Nico di Angelo."

Luna gasped, and everyone turned to her. "Nico?"

Nico looked up again, and his eyes widened. "Luna!"

He stood up and walked forward, as she stepped towards him. They met in the middle, embracing each other.

The wizards stared at Luna; who was giggling, the witches smiled; Luna had met someone who appreciated her for who she was, and the demigods gaped; Nico was smiling.

"What are you doing here?" Nico asked.

Luna frowned. "I woke up. What are _you_ doing here?"

Nico raised his eyebrows. "I woke up too."

"Um, Death Breath?" Thalia called. "Mind explaining?"

Nico stepped back, letting go of Luna's hands. "Guys, this is Luna Lovegood," he announced. "I met her while in Europe once. She's a descendant of At- Annabeth's mom and Will's dad. So she'd really smart, and she can see."

"Of course she can see!" Hermione replied. "She's not blind."

Nico opened his mouth to reply, but Leo shouted out.

"I'VE DONE IT!"

He held up a small black box.

Jason stared at it. "Wow, Leo," he teased. "I didn't know you had a woman. Care to tell which one you're proposing to?"

Leo snorted, but a few saw the slight crease in his brow that gave away that Jason had hit a nerve. "Man, you got it all wrong. I'm still single and this ain't a ring."

"Ain't isn't a word," a female voice said from behind the wizards.

They all looked to see two people, a boy and a girl. They both looked exceptionally tired, with thin frames and hollow eyes that looked haunted. The girl had yellowish golden hair and gray eyes so dark, they looked almost black. The boy had raven black hair and stormy sea green eyes. They were leaning on each other as if their lives depended on it, but they both had faint smiles.

Thalia laughed. "Yeah. Leave it to Annie to correct the grammar."

"Don't call me Annie!" the girl snapped, half playfully. "I'm Annabeth Chase, and this is my boyfriend, Percy Jackson."

"Percy?" Percy Weasley asked.

Percy Jackson raised an eyebrow. "Yeah."

"I'm Percy Weasley. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

The two worn-out teenagers sat down in the two chairs that were empty.

"I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione said.

"Ron Weasley. I'm Percy's brother and Hermione's boyfriend."

"George Weasley, Ron and Percy's brother."

"Ginny Weasley, those three boys' sister."

"Harry Potter."

"I'm Neville Longbottom." Neville was glad to see that nobody had laughed at his last name.

It was then that the wizards realized that they hadn't sat down yet, and moved to the empty table.

The two groups began to talk amongst themselves as breakfast began.

* * *

There was a small flash of light that attracted everyone's attention to the counter. A note floated down, and, being closest to it, Nico snatched it out of the air.

_**Dear demigods, wizards, and witches,**_ he read.

"Wizards and witches?" Piper asked at the same time that Hermione spluttered out, "Demigods?"

"Just be quiet!" Nico scolded, reading ahead. "It explains."

**_I am quite sure that you are confused right now. _**There were several nods. **_Well, I would like to welcome you to my home in the center of the Sun. I hope you'll make yourselves comfortable here, seeing as though you're not prisoners, you can't get out._**

**_I have pulled you out of two separate universes, both of which the gods still exist. Wizards and witches, you are those that have been blessed by Lady Hecate. Hermione, demigods are the offspring of gods and mortals. And yes, gods exist. _**Hermione blushed. **_I assure you, though, that I am not evil. The evil is what is to come, not what is coming or was has gone. And before you ask who I am, I will tell you that I will only reveal myself to you once you have completed a simple task._**

**_Read the papers attached to this note._**

**_For those _****_demigods, the language will change to Greek or Latin to your preference, which explains how Nico is reading this. And as another assurance, one of you _does_ know me._**

**_Sincerely,_**

**_A_**

There was silence.

"Who's A?" Ron asked through a mouthful of bacon, eventually.

"I don't know," Nico said slowly. "But there are papers attached to this note. And we're supposed to read them, I think."

"We should find another room," Ginny suggested.

* * *

A few minutes later, they were all seated in a living room. Percy and Annabeth laid against each other on a love seat, as did Jason and Piper on another one. Thalia shared a couch with Leo, Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Percy Weasley, George, Ginny, and Neville all sat on another couch. Hazel sat on Frank's lap in a cushioned chair, and Nico and Luna shared the floor.

"So I'll read first," Nico said, ripping the note off of the staples that kept it attached to the other papers. "Here we go," he announced. "**XXXIII: ANNABETH.**"

* * *

**So yeah. No flames, please. I'm out of marshmallows.**

**Read, review, and recycle.**

**-Wolfe-**


	2. Reading XXXIII

**Yo. Just re-read the last chapter... accidentally posted the draft. So I updated it with the actual version, and you might want to go read over it a bit.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Technically, no one can until they're eighteen.**

* * *

"**XXXIII: ANNABETH,**" Nico read.

Annabeth groaned. "Why does it have to be in my point of view?"

Percy **(A/N: For the sake of the story, Percy Jackson is going to be Percy and Percy Weasley is going to be Weasley)** just laughed and pulled her closer.

**ANNABETH FIGURED IT COULD'VE BEEN WORSE. If she had to go on a horrifying solo quest,**

"Quest?" Weasley asked.

The demigods nodded. "Yeah. We get quests. Most of them are death sentences, but yep."

** at least she'd gotten to have lunch with Percy on the banks of the Tiber first. Now she got to take a scooter ride with Gregory Peck.**

Hermione grinned; she recognized the name. "Why's he there? He died! He's from _Roman Holiday_!"

Annabeth smiled back at her.

Neville frowned. "What's that?"

"You'll see."

**She only knew about that old movie because of her dad. Over the past few years, since the two of them had made up, they'd spent more time together, and she had learned that her dad had a sappy side. Sure, he liked military history, weapons, and biplanes, but he also loved old films, especially romantic comedies from the 1940s and '50s. _Roman Holiday_ was one of his favorites. He'd made Annabeth watch it.**

**She thought the plot was silly—a princess escapes her minders and falls in love with an American journalist in Rome—but she suspected her dad liked it because it reminded him of his own romance with the goddess Athena: another impossible pairing that couldn't end happily. Her dad was nothing like Gregory Peck. Athena certainly wasn't anything like Audrey Hepburn. But Annabeth knew that people saw what they wanted to see. They didn't need the Mist to warp their perceptions.**

"That's sad," Ron said, and Ginny nodded in agreement.

**As the baby-blue scooter**

Nico fake-gagged. Baby blue was his least favorite color. Luna giggled next to him.

** zipped through the streets of Rome, the goddess Rhea Silvia gave Annabeth a running commentary on how the city had changed over the centuries.**

**"The Sublician Bridge was over there," she said, pointing to a bend in the Tiber. "You know, where Horatius and his two friends defended the city from an invading army? Now, _there_ was a brave Roman!"**

Frank, Hazel, and Jason all straightened up involuntarily. Frank cast the evil eye at Leo, remembering the 'stupid Romans' incident while getting the Archimedes spheres.

**"And look, dear," Tiberinus**

"When did he get there?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Harry, Tiberinus was Gregory Peck. Not literally, but he looked like it."

Harry blushed. "Oh."

**added, "that's the place where Romulus and Remus washed ashore."**

**He seemed to be talking about a spot on the riverside where some ducks were making a nest out of torn-up plastic bags and candy wrappers.**

A few people laughed, but Piper huffed, thinking about all of the pollution that was happening.

**"Ah, yes," Rhea Silvia sighed happily. "You were so kind to flood yourself and wash my babies ashore for the wolves to find."**

**"It was nothing," Tiberinus said.**

**Annabeth felt light-headed. The river god was talking about something that had happened thousands of years ago, when this area was nothing but marshes and maybe some shacks.**

"Nope," Jason said, shaking his head. "No shacks. Just marshes."

** Tiberinus saved two babies, one of whom went on to found the world's greatest empire. _It was nothing._**

"Well, when you put it that way..."

"What other way is there to put it?"

"...good point."

**Rhea Silvia pointed out a large modern apartment building. "That used to be a temple to Venus. Then it was a church. Then a palace. Then an apartment building. It burned down three times. Now it's an apartment building again. And that spot right there—"**

**"Please," Annabeth said. "You're making me dizzy."**

**Rhea Silvia laughed. "I'm sorry, dear. Layers upon layers of history here, but it's nothing compared to Greece. Athens was old when Rome was a collection of mud huts. You'll see, if you survive."**

"I doubt that helped."

**"Not helping," Annabeth muttered.**

Annabeth fake-sobbed. "No! I think like Leo!"

Piper leaned over to whisper in Jason ear.

"Is it me, or did Percy and Annabeth come back with different personalities?"

**"Here we are," Tiberinus announced. He pulled over in front of a large marble building, the facade covered in city grime but still beautiful. Ornate carvings of Roman gods decorated the roofline. The massive entrance was barred with iron gates, heavily padlocked.**

**"I'm going in there?" Annabeth wished she'd brought Leo, or at least borrowed some wire cutters from his tool belt.**

Leo grinned. "Oh, yes, I've been waiting for this day. The Great Annabeth Chase needs my help!"

Annabeth snorted. "Don't get too full of yourself, Repair Boy. I managed perfectly fine."

"Aww..."

**Rhea Silvia covered her mouth and giggled. "No, my dear. Not _in_ it. _Under_ it."**

**Tiberinus pointed to a set of stone steps on the side of the building—the sort that would have led ****to a basement apartment if this place were in Manhattan.**

"You've been spending too much time in 'York, Annie," Thalia teased. "You need to get your Virginia boots back on. Or California."

**"Rome is chaotic aboveground," Tiberinus said, "but that's nothing compared to _below_ ground. You must descend into the buried city, Annabeth Chase. Find the altar of the foreign god. The failures of your predecessors will guide you.**

"Well, that's comforting to hear."

** After that...I do not know."**

**Annabeth's backpack felt heavy on her shoulders. She'd been studying the bronze map for days now, scouring Daedalus's laptop for information. Unfortunately, the few things she had learned made this quest seem even more impossible. "My siblings...none of them made it all the way to the shrine, did they."**

**Tiberinus shook his head. "But you know what prize awaits, if you can liberate it."**

"What prize?" Luna asked.

All of the demigods looked down sadly. "A prize with a heavy price to pay."

**"Yes," Annabeth said.**

**"It could bring peace to the children of Greece and Rome," Rhea Silvia said. "It could change the course of the coming war."**

"Whoa..."

**"If I live," Annabeth said.**

There was a heavy silence in the room.

Jason let out a weak chuckle. "Ever the optimist, Annabeth," he tried.

"Not helping, Jase," Piper muttered.

**Tiberinus nodded sadly. "Because you also understand the guardian you must face?"**

**Annabeth remembered the spiders at Fort Sumter, and the dream Percy had described—the hissing voice in the** dark.

Ron frowned. "Bloody hell, that's scary. Spiders!" he shivered.

Haze; shook her head. "Your situation isn't like hers. If there's a spider within a mile of her, it'll find her."

"That's even _creepier._"

**"Yes."**

**Rhea Silvia looked at her husband. "She is brave. Perhaps she is stronger than the others."**

Percy beamed proudly.

**"I hope so," said the river god. "Good-bye, Annabeth Chase. And good luck."**

**Rhea Silvia beamed. "We have such a lovely afternoon planned! Off to shop!"**

**Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn sped off on their baby-blue motorbike. Then Annabeth turned and descended the steps alone.**

**She'd been underground plenty of times.**

**But halfway down the steps, she realized just how long it had been since she'd adventured by herself. She froze.**

"You've adventured by yourself?"

Annabeth locked eyes with Thalia. "Yeah," she said, her mind miles away. "Once upon a time."

**Gods...she hadn't done something like this since she was a _kid._ After running away from home, she'd spent a few weeks surviving on her own, living in alleyways and hiding from monsters until Thalia**

"Thalia, as in the Thalia sitting on this couch with me?" Ron asked, leaning forward to look at Thalia.

"Yeah," Nico responded; said girl and Annabeth were both still stuck in their memories.

Hermione frowned about something else. "She ran away?"

Percy looked away. "All three of 'em did."

"Three?"

"You'll see."

** and Luke**

"Oh."

** took her under their wings. Then, once she'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, she'd lived there until she was twelve. After that, all her quests had been with Percy or her other friends.**

**The last time she had felt this scared and alone, she'd been seven years old. She remembered the day Thalia, Luke, and she had wandered into a Cyclopes' lair in Brooklyn. Thalia and Luke had gotten captured, and Annabeth had had to cut them free. She still remembered shivering in a dark ****corner of that dilapidated mansion, listening to the Cyclopes mimicking her friends' voices, trying to trick her into coming out into the open.**

Thalia grinned, snapping out of her daze. "Oh, man, we were so proud of her that day. Our little girl, stabbing a full-grown Cyclops in the foot!" She burst out laughing.

"Hey!" Annabeth protested. "I was young and it was a spur-of-the-moment thing! And it _did_ get us out of there!"

Thalia reached over and patted her head. "I know. That's why we were proud. And now..." she sighed, leaning back. "now I have two to be proud of."

**What if _this_ is a trick, too? she wondered. What if those other children of Athena died because Tiberinus and Rhea Silvia led them into a trap? Would Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn do something like that?**

"You mean Tiberinus and Rhea Silvia?"

"Yeah."

**She forced herself to keep going. She had no choice. If the Athena Parthenos was really down here, it could decide the fate of the war. More importantly, it could help her mom. Athena _needed_ her.**

"That's a rare occasion. When a god or goddess actually, really, _needs_ you."

Ginny frowned. "They don't seem like great parents."

A few demigods rolled their eyes. "Oh, you don't know the start of it."

**At the bottom of the steps she reached an old wooden door with an iron pull ring. Above the ring was a metal plate with a keyhole. Annabeth started considering ways to pick the lock, but as soon as she touched the pull ring, a fiery shape burned in the middle of the door: the silhouette of Athena's owl. Smoke plumed from the keyhole. The door swung inward.**

**Annabeth looked up one last time. At the top of the stairwell, the sky was a square of brilliant blue. Mortals would be enjoying the warm afternoon. Couples would be holding hands at the cafés. Tourists would be bustling through the shops and museums. Regular Romans would be going about their daily business, probably not considering the thousands of years of history under their feet, and definitely unaware of the spirits, gods, and monsters that still dwelt here, or the fact that their city might be destroyed today unless a certain group of demigods succeeded in stopping the giants.**

"And retrieving the statue," Frank murmured.

**Annabeth stepped through the doorway.**

**She found herself in a basement that was an architectural cyborg. Ancient brick walls were crisscrossed with modern electrical cables and plumbing. The ceiling was held up with a combination of steel scaffolding and old granite Roman columns.**

Jason, Frank, and Hazel straightened up again.

**The front half of the basement was stacked with crates. Out of curiosity, Annabeth opened a few. Some were packed with multicolored spools of string—like for kites or arts and crafts projects. Other crates were full of cheap plastic gladiator swords. Maybe at one point this had been a storage area for a tourist shop.**

**In the back of the basement, the floor had been excavated, revealing another set of steps—these of white stone—leading still deeper underground.**

**Annabeth crept to the edge. Even with the glow cast by her dagger, it was too dark to see below. She rested her hand on the wall and found a light switch.**

"Good," Luna praised. "Lights are good."

**She flipped it. Glaring white fluorescent bulbs illuminated the stairs. Below, she saw a mosaic floor decorated with deer and fauns—maybe a room from an Ancient Roman villa, just stashed away under this modern basement along with the crates of string and plastic swords.**

**She climbed down. The room was about twenty feet square. The walls had once been brightly painted, but most of the frescoes had peeled or faded. The only exit was a hole dug in one corner of the floor where the mosaic had been pulled up. Annabeth crouched next to the opening. It dropped straight down into a larger cavern, but Annabeth couldn't see the bottom.**

"Not good," Harry commented.

"That was obvious."

**She heard running water maybe thirty or forty feet below. The air didn't smell like a sewer—just old and musty, and slightly sweet, like moldering flowers. Perhaps it was an old water line from the aqueducts. There was no way down.**

"Weren't there stairs?" Weasley asked.

"They were on the other side of the room," Annabeth reminded him.

**"I'm not jumping," she muttered to herself.**

**As if in reply, something glowed in the darkness. The Mark of Athena blazed to life at the bottom of the cavern, revealing glistening brickwork along a subterranean canal forty feet below. The fiery owl seemed to be taunting her: _Well, this is the way, kid. So you'd better figure something out._**

A few stifled their laughs.

**Annabeth considered her options. Too dangerous to jump. No ladders or ropes. She thought about borrowing some metal scaffolding from above to use as a fire pole, but it was all bolted in place. Besides, she didn't want to cause the building to collapse on top of her.**

**Frustration crawled through her like an army of termites. She had spent her life watching other demigods gain amazing powers. Percy could control water.**

"Son of Poseidon or Neptune," Hermione guessed.

"Poseidon," Percy said proudly.

**If he were here, he could raise the water level and simply float down. Hazel, from what she had said, could find her way underground with flawless accuracy and even create or change the course of tunnels.**

Hermione frowned. "I... don't know."

Ron waved his hands around in the air in fake-panic. "Ahh!" he shouted. "Hermione doesn't know something! The world's ending!"

Hermione stared.

"Just ignore it," Annabeth advised. "These boys do it to me, too."

"And it was Pluto," Hazel added. "Roman form of Hades."

**She could easily make a new path. Leo would pull just the right tools from his belt and build something to do the job.**

"Uh... Hephaestus or..." Hermione's eyebrows scrunched up. "Vulcan?"

"Yep," Leo replied. "Hephaestus."

**Frank could turn ****into a bird.**

"I dunno."

"He's a son of Mars," Hazel stated.

"But I'm a legacy of Poseidon, descendant of Periclymenus, and shape-shifter."

** Jason could simply control the wind and float down.**

"Son of Jupiter," Jason grinned, before anyone could say anything. Piper laughed quietly.

**Even Piper with her charmspeak...**

Piper feigned offensiveness. "What do you mean, _even_?"

"Sorry," Annabeth apologized.

**she could have convinced Tiberinus and Rhea Silvia to be a little more helpful.**

"Doubt it," Neville said. "I don't think it would work on gods or goddesses."

Piper looked at Neville in surprise, who blushed.

**What did Annabeth have? A bronze dagger that did nothing special, and a cursed silver coin. She had her backpack with Daedalus's laptop,**

"You have _that_?"

"Yeah."

"But- what- how-"

"Long story, Hermione."

** a water bottle, a few pieces of ambrosia for emergencies, and a box of matches—probably useless, but her dad had drilled into her head that she should always have a way to make fire.**

Leo laughed. "Human torch here!"

"Human torch?"

To demonstrate, Leo's hair went up in flames.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron scrambled back, and Weasley sent a jet of water at Leo's hair - not even putting it out.

"Leo!" Ginny gasped.

Said boy only smiled impishly and put out the flames.

**She had no amazing powers. Even her one true magic item, her New York Yankees cap of invisibility, had stopped working, and was still back in her cabin on the _Argo II_.**

Thalia looked confused. "Stopped working?"

"Got in a fight with mom."

**_You've got your intelligence,_ a voice said. Annabeth wondered if Athena was speaking to her, but that was probably just wishful thinking.**

"Nah," George said. "Important quest like this, probably was your mom."

**Intelligence...like Athena's favorite hero, Odysseus. He'd won the Trojan War with cleverness, not strength. He had overcome all sorts of monsters and hardships with his quick wits. That's what Athena valued.**

_**Wisdom's daughter walks alone.**_

Percy's fists clenched. "I hate that line," he muttered.

A few people looked at him sympathetically.

**That didn't mean just without other people, Annabeth realized. It meant without any special powers.**

"That makes sense..."

**Okay...so how to get down there safely and make sure she had a way to get out again if necessary?**

**She climbed back to the basement and stared at the open crates. Kite string and plastic swords. The idea that came to her was so ridiculous, she almost had to laugh; but it was better than nothing.**

**She set to work. Her hands seemed to know exactly what to do. Sometimes that happened, like when she was helping Leo with the ship's machinery or drawing architectural plans on the computer. She'd never made anything out of kite string and plastic swords, but it seemed easy, natural. Within minutes she'd used a dozen balls of string and a crateful of swords to create a makeshift rope ladder—a braided line, woven for strength yet not too thick, with swords tied at two-foot intervals to serve as hand- and footholds.**

"It should work," Luna said, looking over Nico's shoulder at the papers.

Nico pretended that he didn't feel the shiver down his spine when Luna breathed on his neck.

**As a test, she tied one end around a support column and leaned on the rope with all her weight. The plastic swords bent under her, but they provided some extra bulk to the knots in the cord, so at least she could keep a better grip.**

**The ladder wouldn't win any design awards, but it might get her to the bottom of the cavern safely. First, she stuffed her backpack with the leftover spools of string. She wasn't sure why, but they were one more resource, and not too heavy.**

**She headed back to the hole in the mosaic floor. She secured one end of her ladder to the nearest piece of scaffolding, lowered the rope into the cavern, and shinnied down. **

"Well, that's the end of the chapter," Nico said, looking at the next page. "Who wants to read next?"

Weasley raised his hand. "I will." he took the papers from Nico's hands. "**XXXIV: ANNABETH.**"

* * *

**Okay, chapter done. But beware, the next chapters will probably take waaaay more time to get up.**

**Read, review, and recycle.**

**-Wolfe-**


	3. Reading XXXIV

**Yo. New chapter! Fun.**

**Disclaimer: You know, this is the last one: I don't own anything. There. I've said it, and the fact stands throughout the whole story. Until I say so.**

* * *

"**XXXIV: ANNABETH,**" Weasley read.

"Oh, great, me again."

**AS ANNABETH HUNG IN THE AIR, descending hand over hand with the ladder swinging wildly, she thanked Chiron for all those years of training on the climbing course at Camp Half-Blood. She'd complained loudly and often that rope climbing would never help her defeat a monster. Chiron had just smiled, like he knew this day would come.**

Annabeth looked down sadly. "He had," she whispered.

**Finally Annabeth made it to the bottom. She missed the brickwork edge and landed in the canal, but it turned out to be only a few inches deep. Freezing water soaked into her running shoes.**

"That's not good," Neville said.

"Yes," Luna agreed. "she could get sick or something."

**She held up her glowing dagger. The shallow channel ran down the middle of a brickwork tunnel. Every few yards, ceramic pipes jutted from the walls. She guessed that the pipes were drains, part of the ancient Roman plumbing system, though it was amazing to her that a tunnel like this had survived, crowded underground with all the other centuries' worth of pipes, basements, and sewers.**

**A sudden thought chilled her even more than the water. A few years ago, Percy and she had gone on a quest in Daedalus's labyrinth—a secret network of tunnels and rooms, heavily enchanted and trapped, which ran under all the cities of America.**

Hermione's mouth hung open. "You were in the_ Labyrinth_?"

"Yeah," Percy nodded. "But it was destroyed."

**When Daedalus died in the Battle of the Labyrinth, the entire maze had collapsed—or so Annabeth believed. But what if that was only in America? What if this was an older version of the labyrinth? Daedalus once told her that his maze had a life of its own. It was constantly growing and changing. Maybe the labyrinth could regenerate, like monsters. That would make sense. It was an archetypal force, as Chiron would say—something that could never really die.**

**If this was part of the labyrinth...**

"No," Percy said immediately. "It can't be, and it better not be."

**Annabeth decided not to dwell on that, but she also decided not to assume her directions were accurate. The labyrinth made distance meaningless. If she wasn't careful, she could walk twenty feet in the wrong direction and end up in Poland.**

"I've always wanted to go to Poland," Jason put in.

"Yeah, me too," Frank concurred.

"I can take you there later," Nico suggested.

"How?" Ron asked.

Luna's eyes twinkled. "Shadow traveling."

"What's-"

"Tell you later."

**Just to be safe, she tied a new ball of string to the end of her rope ladder. She could unravel it behind her as she explored. An old trick, but a good one.**

**She debated which way to go. The tunnel seemed the same in both directions. Then, about fifty feet to her left, the Mark of Athena blazed against the wall. Annabeth could swear it was glaring at her with those big fiery eyes, as if to say, _What's your problem? Hurry up!_**

**She was really starting to hate that owl.**

"Anyone would, really," Piper reasoned. "in a situation like that.

**By the time she reached the spot, the image had faded, and she'd run out of string on her first spool.**

"Already?"

"It was pretty short, Frank."

**As she was attaching a new line, she glanced across the tunnel. There was a broken section in the brickwork, as if a sledgehammer had knocked a hole in the wall. She crossed to take a look. Sticking her dagger through the opening for light, Annabeth could see a lower chamber, long and narrow, with a mosaic floor, painted walls, and benches running down either side. It was shaped sort of like a subway car.**

**She stuck her head into the hole, hoping nothing would bite it off. At the near end of the room was a bricked-off doorway. At the far end was a stone table, or maybe an altar.**

Jason's head tilted. "I'm pretty sure it's an altar. And a trap."

**Hmm...The water tunnel kept going, but Annabeth was sure this was the way. She remembered what Tiberinus had said: _Find the altar of the foreign god_. There didn't seem to be any exits from the altar room, but it was a short drop onto the bench below. She should be able to climb out again with no problem.**

"When you're a demigod," Hazel started, shaking her head, "there's bound to be a problem.

**Still holding her string, she lowered herself down.**

**The room's ceiling was barrel-shaped with brick arches, but Annabeth didn't like the look of the supports. Directly above her head, on the arch nearest to the bricked-in doorway, the capstone was cracked in half. Stress fractures ran across the ceiling. The place had probably been intact for two thousand years, but she decided she'd rather not spend too much time here. With her luck, it would collapse in the next two minutes.**

"Doubt it."

**The floor was a long narrow mosaic with seven pictures in a row, like a time line. At Annabeth's feet was a raven. Next was a lion. Several others looked like Roman warriors with various weapons. The rest were too damaged or covered in dust for Annabeth to make out details. The benches on either side were littered with broken pottery. The walls were painted with scenes of a banquet: a robed man with a curved cap like an ice cream** scoop,

"Annie, you've been spending too much time with Percy."

"Yeah, I know."

"Hey," Ron said. "Aren't you not supposed to call her Annie?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Well, Thalia's special. You remember what was in the last chapter? Yeah."

** sitting next to a larger guy who radiated sunbeams. Standing around them were torchbearers and servants, and various animals like crows and lions wandered in the background. Annabeth wasn't sure what the picture represented, but it didn't remind her of any Greek legends that she knew.**

"It's Mithras," Nico said.

"How did you know that?" Hazel asked.

Nico shrugged. "I've heard children of Athena in Elysium talking about it."

**At the far end of the room, the altar was elaborately carved with a frieze showing the man with the ice-cream-scoop hat holding a knife to the neck of a bull. On the altar stood a stone figure of a man sunk to his knees in rock, a dagger and a torch in his outraised hands. Again, Annabeth had no idea what those images meant.**

"Not good stuff," Leo said.

"No shit, Sherlock."

**She took one step toward the altar. Her foot went _CRUNCH._ She looked down and realized she'd just put her shoe through a human rib cage.**

Most of the wizards turned green, while the demigods just winced.

**Annabeth swallowed back a scream. Where had _that_ come from? She had glanced down only a moment before and hadn't seen any bones. Now the floor was littered with them. The rib cage was obviously old. It crumbled to dust as she removed her foot. Nearby lay a corroded bronze dagger very much like her own. Either this dead person had been carrying the weapon, or it had killed him.**

"Most likely both."

**She held out her blade to see in front of her. A little farther down the mosaic path sprawled a more complete skeleton in the remains of an embroidered red doublet, like a man from the Renaissance. His frilled collar and skull had been badly burned, as if the guy had decided to wash his hair with a blowtorch.**

**Wonderful, Annabeth thought. She lifted her eyes to the altar statue, which held a dagger and a torch.**

Luna squinted. "So it's death by fire or dagger, isn't it?"

Annabeth nodded solemnly, thinking of her predecessors.

**Some kind of test, Annabeth decided. These two guys had failed. Correction: not just two guys. More bones and scraps of clothing were scattered all the way to the altar. She couldn't guess how many skeletons were represented, but she was willing to bet they were all demigods from the past, children of Athena on the same quest.**

A few looked down, feeling sympathy towards the goddess of wisdom. Jason, Frank, and Hazel felt ashamed that that had happened pretty much because of the Romans.

**"I will not be another skeleton on your floor," she called to the statue, hoping she sounded brave.**

**_A girl,_ said a watery voice, echoing through the room. _Girls are not allowed._**

**_A female demigod,_ said a second voice. _Inexcusable._**

"Sexist pigs," Thalia growled.

**The chamber rumbled. Dust fell from the cracked ceiling. Annabeth bolted for the hole she'd come through, but it had disappeared. Her string had been severed. She clambered up on the bench ****and pounded on the wall where the hole had been, hoping the hole's absence was just an illusion, but the wall felt solid.**

**She was trapped.**

"Not good, not good, not good..." Piper muttered under her breath.

**Along the benches, a dozen ghosts shimmered into existence—glowing purple men in Roman togas, like the Lares she'd seen at Camp Jupiter. They glared at her as if she'd interrupted their meeting.**

George snorted. "That's rude."

**She did the only thing she could. She stepped down from the bench and put her back to the bricked-in doorway. She tried to look confident, though the scowling purple ghosts and the demigod skeletons at her feet made her want to turtle in her T-shirt and scream.**

A few chuckled, despite the situation.

**"I'm a child of Athena," she said, as boldly as she could manage.**

**"A Greek," one of the ghosts said with disgust. "That is even worse."**

"Hey!" the demigods protested indignantly.

**At the other end of the chamber, an old-looking ghost rose with some difficulty (do ghosts have arthritis?)**

A few people looked at Nico. He shrugged. "Some do," he admitted.

** and stood by the altar, his dark eyes fixed on Annabeth. Her first thought was that he looked like the pope. He had a glittering robe, a pointed hat, and a shepherd's crook.**

**"This is the cavern of Mithras," said the old ghost. "You have disturbed our sacred rituals. You cannot look upon our mysteries and live."**

**"I don't want to look upon your mysteries," Annabeth assured him. "I'm following the Mark of Athena. Show me the exit, and I'll be on my way."**

Jason shook his head sadly. "It doesn't work that way."

**Her voice sounded calm, which surprised her. She had no idea how to get out of here, but she knew she had to succeed where her siblings had failed. Her path led farther on—deeper into the underground layers of Rome.**

**_The failures of your predecessors will guide you,_ Tiberinus had said. _After that...I do not know._**

**The ghosts mumbled to each other in Latin. Annabeth caught a few unkind words about female demigods and Athena.**

Thalia and Percy growled; they both felt especially protective over Annabeth.

**Finally the ghost with the pope hat struck his shepherd's crook against the floor. The other Lares fell silent.**

**"Your Greek goddess is powerless here," said the pope. "Mithras is the god of Roman warriors! He is the god of the legion, the god of the empire!"**

**"He wasn't even Roman," Annabeth protested. "Wasn't he, like, Persian or something?"**

Percy smiled, even though he was still worried. "That's my Wise Girl," he said proudly.

"Yeah, that's the fact-ridden one we know," Hazel teased.

The wizards looked to Hermione; she and Annabeth were a lot alike.

**"Sacrilege!" the old man yelped, banging his staff on the floor a few more times. "Mithras protects ****us! I am the _pater_ of this brotherhood—"**

** "The father," Annabeth translated.**

Frank groaned. "Bad idea. Don't interrupt him."

** "Do not interrupt!**

"Nice, Frank, nice."

** As _pater,_ I must protect our mysteries."**

**"What mysteries?" Annabeth asked. "A dozen dead guys in togas sitting around in a cave?"**

Laughter rang out around the room.

"Good one, Annabeth," Leo congratulated.

**The ghosts muttered and complained, until the _pater_ got them under control with a taxicab whistle. The old guy had a good set of lungs. "You are clearly an unbeliever. Like the others, you must die."**

**_The others._ Annabeth made an effort not to look at the skeletons.**

"It was hard," she admitted.

**Her mind worked furiously, grasping for anything she knew about Mithras. He had a secret cult for warriors. He was popular in the legion. He was one of the gods who'd supplanted Athena as a war deity. Aphrodite had mentioned him during their teatime chat in Charleston. Aside from that, Annabeth had no idea. Mithras just wasn't one of the gods they talked about at Camp Half-Blood. She doubted the ghosts would wait while she whipped out Daedalus's laptop and did a search.**

"Don't we all wish," Harry said.

**She scanned the floor mosaic—seven pictures in a row. She studied the ghosts and noticed all of them wore some sort of badge on their toga—a raven, or a torch, or a bow.**

**"You have rites of passage," she blurted out. "Seven levels of membership. And the top level is the _pater."_**

**The ghosts let out a collective gasp. Then they all began shouting at once. "How does she know this?" one demanded.**

Percy smiled proudly again.

** "The girl has gleaned our secrets!"**

**"Silence!" the _pater_ ordered.**

**"But she might know about the ordeals!" another cried.**

**"The ordeals!" Annabeth said. "I know about them!"**

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "You seriously think they're going to fall for that?"

Annabeth smirked mischievously.

**Another round of incredulous gasping.**

Everyone was now gasping for air through their laughter - even George, who they hadn't seen laugh so hard since Fred had died, and Hermione, who hadn't believed it a moment ago.

**"Ridiculous!" The _pater_ yelled. "The girl lies! Daughter of Athena, choose your way of death. If you do not choose, the god will choose for you!"**

**"Fire or dagger," Annabeth guessed.**

**Even the _pater_ looked stunned. Apparently he hadn't remembered there were victims of past punishments lying on the floor.**

"Gosh, they're dense," Ron muttered.

Piper and Ginny purposely looked at him, while Hermione stifled another laugh.

"Three years, Ron," she murmured. "three years."

**"How—how did you... ?" He gulped. "Who are you?"**

"She's Annie, of course," Thalia grinned.

**"A child of Athena," Annabeth said again. "But not just any child. I am...uh, the _mater_ in my sisterhood. The _magna mater_, in fact. There are no mysteries to me. Mithras cannot hide anything from my sight."**

"Good," a few agreed. "Confidence."

**"The _magna mater_!" a ghost wailed in despair. "The big mother!"**

**"Kill her!" One of the ghosts charged, his hands out to strangle her, but he passed right through ****her.**

Some laughed.

** "You're dead," Annabeth reminded him.**

Nico raised an eyebrow, as if he had been insulted.

** "Sit down." The ghost looked embarrassed and took his seat.**

Nico frowned. "He's embarrassed?"

"Not that he's dead," Annabeth assured him. "That he forgot."

**"We do not need to kill you ourselves," the _pater_ growled. "Mithras shall do that for us!"**

**The statue on the altar began to glow.**

"Not good," Percy muttered, gripping Annabeth's shoulders tighter.

**Annabeth pressed her hands against the bricked-in doorway at her back. That _had_ to be the exit. The mortar was crumbling, but it was not weak enough for her to break through with brute force.**

**She looked desperately around the room—the cracked ceiling, the floor mosaic, the wall paintings, and the carved altar. She began to talk, pulling deductions from the top of her head.**

**"It is no good," she said. "I know all. You test your initiates with fire because the torch is the symbol of Mithras. His other symbol is the dagger, which is why you can also be tested with the blade. You want to kill me, just as...uh, as Mithras killed the sacred bull."**

**It was a total guess, but the altar showed Mithras killing a bull, so Annabeth figured it must be** important.

"Yes," Harry agreed.

**The ghosts wailed and covered their ears. Some slapped their faces as if to wake up from a bad dream.**

"That part was funny," Annabeth half-smiled.

**"The big mother knows!" one said. "It is impossible!"**

**Unless you look around the room, Annabeth thought, her confidence growing.**

**She glared at the ghost who had just spoken. He had a raven badge on his toga—the same symbol as on the floor at her feet.**

**"You are just a raven," she scolded. "That is the lowest rank. Be silent and let me speak to your _pater."_**

**The ghost cringed. "Mercy! Mercy!"**

Nico looked surprised. "He listened!"

**At the front of the room, the _pater_ trembled—either from rage or fear, Annabeth wasn't sure which. His pope hat tilted sideways on his head like a gas gauge dropping toward empty. "Truly, you know much, big mother. Your wisdom is great, but that is all the more reason why you cannot leave. The weaver warned us you would come."**

"The weaver..." Luna and Hermione both muttered to themselves, trying to figure it out

**"The weaver..." Annabeth realized with a sinking feeling what the _pater_ was talking about: the thing in the dark from Percy's dream, the guardian of the shrine.**

"Oh," Luna said, her voice small - however far along, she was still a descendant of Athena.

** This was one time she wished she _didn't_ know the answer, but she tried to maintain her calm. "The weaver fears me. She doesn't want me to follow the Mark of Athena. But you will let me pass."**

**"You must choose an ordeal!" the _pater_ insisted. "Fire or dagger! Survive one, and then, perhaps!"**

**Annabeth looked down at the bones of her siblings. _The failures of your predecessors will guide you._**

**They'd all chosen one or the other: fire or dagger. Maybe they'd thought they could beat the ordeal. But they had all died. Annabeth needed a third choice.**

**She stared at the altar statue, which was glowing brighter by the second. She could feel its heat across the room. Her instinct was to focus on the dagger or the torch, but instead she concentrated on the statue's base. She wondered why its legs were stuck in stone. Then it occurred to her: maybe the little statue of Mithras wasn't _stuck_ in the rock. Maybe he was _emerging_ from the rock.**

This time, Jason looked surprised. "Never would've thought of that," he said.

**"Neither torch nor dagger," Annabeth said firmly. "There is a third test, which I will pass."**

**"A third test?" the _pater_ demanded.**

**"Mithras was born from rock," Annabeth said, hoping she was right. "He emerged fully grown from the stone, holding his dagger and torch."**

**The screaming and wailing told her she had guessed correctly.**

"Bloody hell," Ron muttered. "I'm surprised her eardrums haven't burst yet."

**"The big mother knows all!" a ghost cried. "That is our most closely guarded secret!"**

**_Then maybe you shouldn't put a statue of it on your altar,_ Annabeth thought. But she was thankful for stupid male ghosts.**

"Hey!" the males cried out.

** If they'd let women warriors into their cult, they might have learned some common sense.**

The girls in the room laughed at the boys' expressions and high-gived Annabeth.

**Annabeth gestured dramatically to the wall she'd come from. "I was born from stone, just as Mithras was! Therefore, I have already passed your ordeal!"**

"Really, Annabeth?"

**"Bah!" the _pater_ spat. "You came from a hole in the wall! That's not the same thing."**

**Okay. So apparently the _pater_ wasn't a complete moron,**

"That's a surprise."

** but Annabeth remained confident. She ****glanced at the ceiling, and another idea came to her—all the details clicking together.**

**"I have control over the very stones." She raised her arms. "I will prove my power is greater than Mithras. With a single strike, I will bring down this chamber."**

Hazel's brows furrowed. "How are you going to do that?"

"You'll see."

**The ghosts wailed and trembled and looked at the ceiling, but Annabeth knew they didn't see what she saw. These ghosts were warriors, not engineers. The children of Athena had many skills, and not just in combat. Annabeth had studied architecture for years. She knew this ancient chamber was on the verge of collapse. She recognized what the stress fractures in the ceiling meant, all emanating from a single point—the top of the stone arch just above her. The capstone was about to crumble, and when that happened, assuming she could time it correctly...**

**"Impossible!" the _pater_ shouted. "The weaver has paid us much tribute to destroy any children of Athena who would dare enter our shrine. We have never let her down. We cannot let you pass."**

**"Then you fear my power!" Annabeth said. "You admit that I could destroy your sacred chamber!"**

**The _pater_ scowled. He straightened his hat uneasily. Annabeth knew she'd put him in an impossible position. He couldn't back down without looking cowardly.**

"Nice," Hermione didn't even look impressed - from what she'd heard, Annabeth was smart enough for it to be expected.

**"Do your worst, child of Athena," he decided. "No one can bring down the cavern of Mithras, especially with one strike. Especially not a girl!"**

"It sounds weird that way," Frank said. "With two 'especially's."

**Annabeth hefted her dagger. The ceiling was low. She could reach the capstone easily, but she'd have to make her one strike count.**

**The doorway behind her was blocked, but in theory, if the room started to collapse, those bricks should weaken and crumble. She _should_ be able to bust her way through before the entire ceiling came down—assuming, of course, that there was something behind the brick wall, not just solid earth; and assuming that Annabeth was quick enough and strong enough and lucky enough. Otherwise, she was about to be a demigod pancake.**

"Ow- Seaweed Brain, you're bruising my shoulders."

Percy blushed. "Sorry, Wise Girl."

**"Well, boys," she said. "Looks like you chose the wrong war god."**

**She struck the capstone. The Celestial bronze blade shattered it like a sugar cube.**

Everyone held their breaths.

**For a moment, nothing happened.**

Lots of frowning.

**"Ha!" the _pater_ gloated. "You see? Athena has no power here!"**

**The room shook. A fissure ran across the length of the ceiling and the far end of the cavern collapsed, burying the altar and the _pater._ More cracks widened. Bricks fell from the arches.**

Whoops and cheers sounded throughout the room. Leo got up and did a dance.

** Ghosts screamed and ran, but they couldn't seem to pass through the walls. Apparently they were bound to this chamber even in death.**

**Annabeth turned. She slammed against the blocked entrance with all her might, and the bricks gave way. As the cavern of Mithras imploded behind her, she lunged into darkness and found herself falling. **

"Well, it's the end of the chapter," Weasley announced.

"I'm hungry," Leo complained.

A cart with food appeared.

"Whoa!" Frank shouted, causing Hazel to cover her ears.

"Frank!" she scolded.

"Sorry," he replied sheepishly.

Harry regarded the cart suspiciously. Leo stood up and walked over to the cart, picking up a small piece of paper.

"Uh-huh," he mused. "It says that it's not poisoned. So we can eat. Signed, A."

"On that note," Weasley said, remembering the last note. "Who here knows A?"

Silence.

"I think," Piper said hesitantly. "whoever knows them doesn't want to or can't say."

"I agree," Annabeth said.

"Well, who wants to read next?"

"I will," Annabeth volunteered. She looked at the title. "Brilliant. More of my thoughts. **XXXV: ANNABETH.**"

* * *

**Yay for homework. Anyways, next chapter should be up soon. I've finished writing most of it.**

**Read, review, and recycle.**

**-Wolfe-**


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